[200q20v] Cam Shaft/Sprocket key failure

[Bernie Benz]

IMO, something put an abnormal torque load on the cam drive system.  The old
distributor was replaced because of a bad drive gear?  Gear pieces worked
their way into the timing chain?  New dist. not installed properly, or
suffered infant mortallity?  Let us know.

Bernie 

> From: Arun Rao <rao at pixar.com>
> Organization: Pixar Animation Studios
> Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 13:08:34 -0700
> To: TM <t44tq at mindspring.com>
> Cc: packley at bellatlantic.net, "'Calvin & Diana Craig'"
> <calvinlc at earthlink.net>, "'Audi 200group'" <200q20v at audifans.com>
> Subject: Fatal design flaws (Was Re: [200q20v] What competition???)
> 
> 
> Talking about design flaws, anyone ever heard of the camshaft sprocket
> key breaking on a 3B?
> 
> Friend of mine had his 200Q in the shop to have a bad distributor
> replaced.  The mechanic (a fellow I trust, by the way) was test driving
> the car after replacement when the engine suddenly made a noise and
> quit.  He pulled over immediately, suspecting that the timing belt had
> gone, but it turned out that the key that holds the camshaft sprocket to
> the shaft had literally broken off, causing the sprocket to run free.
> Ouch!
> 
> Don't know for sure yet, but it's probably a safe bet that he's got a
> few bent valves in there now.  Anyone heard of this happening?  The
> mechanic claims he's seen it on 16-valve VW engines, but I don't
> remember anyone ever posting such a failure mode to the list.
> 
> Car has somewhere around 160K on the clock: has me worried about *my*
> sprocket at 136K.  Good thing to replace with the timing belt, it sounds
> like.
> 
> -Arun
> 
> 
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